Happy Holidays from the PNRC!
Theme: The Galaxy Inside Your Brain
Current News
Brain-tracking Tools to be Shared
When Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center acquired a 3-Tesla MRI scanner in 1994, researchers here got a nearly decade-long head start in mapping the developing brains of children. Now a five-year, $6.43 million federal grant will support the work needed to share those learnings with other researchers throughout the United States and the world. The new Pediatric Functional Neuroimaging Network will help accelerate the use of functional MRI scans as a tool to diagnose disease, guide surgery and improve behavioral therapy.
PNRC Awarded NICHD Contract to develop the Pediatric Functional Neuroimaging Research Network.
A project team led by Scott Holland, Vince Schmithorst, Jennifer Vannest and Holli Kunkel was recently awarded a contract by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to develop the foundations of the Pediatric Functional Neuroimaging Research Network. The primary objectives of this project will development of standardized BOLD fMRI and ASL protocols for use with typically developing children, brain perfusion studies using ASL and passive fMRI assessment of 150 children between the ages of infancy and 18-years-old. In addition, 30 typically developing children in an age range of 6-8 years will be assessed longitudinally through integrated fMRI and ASL using activation tasks targeted at the neurocognitive domains of language and attention in the developing brain. Children will not be sedated for scanning in this project but the results of this study will provide the scientific community with protocols, software, and an initial database of representative fMRI-ASL data in children ranging in age from 0 to 18 years.
Our Mission
To cultivate a multidisciplinary, interdepartmental research environment that will:
- Stimulate and facilitate basic and clinical investigations of brain development and neurological disorders in children using non-invasive neuroimaging technologies.
- Provide resources to support collaborative research efforts in brain imaging in both animal models and children.
- Lead collaborative projects in brain imaging research by developing and translating new imaging technologies for basic and clinical research applications.